Currently, research on an autonomous driving technology of an automobile has been actively conducted in countries, and the countries are considering the legislation so as to enable a vehicle (hereinafter, a “vehicle” refer to an automobile) to travel in an autonomous driving mode on public roads. Here, in the autonomous driving mode, a vehicle system autonomously controls traveling of a vehicle. Specifically, in the autonomous driving mode, the vehicle system autonomously performs at least one of a steering control (control of a traveling direction of the vehicle), a brake control and an accelerator control (control of braking and acceleration/deceleration of the vehicle) based on information (surrounding environment information) indicative of a surrounding environment of the vehicle and obtained from sensors such as a camera, a radar (for example, a laser radar or a millimeter wave radar) and the like. On the other hand, in a manual driving mode to be described later, a driver controls the traveling of the vehicle, as in most of conventional vehicles. Specifically, in the manual driving mode, the traveling of the vehicle is controlled in conformity with a driver's operation (a steering operation, a braking operation, and an accelerator operation), and the vehicle system does not autonomously perform the steering control, the brake control and the accelerator control. The driving mode of the vehicle is not a concept existing only in some vehicles but a concept existing in all vehicles including conventional vehicles having no autonomous driving function. For example, the driving mode of the vehicle is classified in accordance with a vehicle control method or the like.
Thus, in the future, it is expected that vehicles traveling in the autonomous driving mode (hereinafter, appropriately referred to as “autonomous driving vehicle”) and vehicles traveling in the manual driving mode (hereinafter, appropriately referred to as “manual driving vehicle”) coexist on public roads.
As an example of the autonomous driving technology, Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. H09-277887) discloses an autonomous follow-up traveling system in which a following vehicle can autonomously follow a preceding vehicle. In the autonomous follow-up traveling system, each of the preceding vehicle and the following vehicle has an illumination system, character information for preventing another vehicle from intruding between the preceding vehicle and the following vehicle is displayed on the illumination system of the preceding vehicle. And character information indicative of the autonomous follow-up traveling mode is displayed on the illumination system of the following vehicle.
In an autonomous driving society where the autonomous driving vehicles and the manual driving vehicle coexist, it is expected that inter-vehicle communication will be important so as for the vehicles to secure smooth traveling. In particular, when a message of one vehicle is visually presented to the other in another vehicle, the occupant in the other vehicle can feel relieved because the occupant can visually recognize an intention of the one vehicle.
Thus, it is thought in the upcoming autonomous driving society that the visual inter-vehicle communication is very useful so as to secure the smooth traveling of the vehicle.
The present disclosure is aimed at providing an inter-vehicle communication system, a vehicle system, a vehicle illumination system and a vehicle that enable rich visual communication between vehicles.